1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a multi-row type online internal quality inspection device for non-destructively examining and measuring the inside of objects, such as agricultural products, which are transported and placed one by one on numerous receiving trays arranged in many rows and columns on an endless chain conveyor, by projecting light rays from many lamps on them and by detecting a reflection light which is diffused and reflected from the inside of each of the agricultural products, or a light transmitted through the inside of the product, and by inspecting the internal quality on the basis of the light information thus obtained.
The objects applicable to the internal quality inspection by the above-stated device include, for example, fishery products, such as pearl oysters and fish, and meat of stock farming, etc. However, the following description of this invention is given, by way of example, in connection with the internal inspection of an agricultural product.
2. Description of Related Art
Means for measuring the internal quality of objects such as agricultural products (hereinafter will be referred to as inspection objects) using light rays has been variously contrived to operate by different methods. Such different methods include a reflection light method whereby information on the internal quality is detected through a reflection light obtained from the inspection object by projecting thereon light rays which include near infrared rays, as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. HEI 6-30068; and a transmission light method whereby the internal quality information is detected from a transmission light obtained through the inspection objects by projecting a light on the objects, as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. HEI 7-229840).
These methods relate to detecting and measuring means which consists of transport means for conveying the inspection objects as well as light projecting and light receiving devices for detecting the internal quality information. However, the disclosure made in each of the Japanese laid-open patent applications merely shows the transport means as a single strip of simple transport conveyor arranged to convey inspection objects in a row.
The inventors of the present patent application, therefore, have developed transport means suited for an internal quality inspection device including receiving trays for sorting and screening and an agricultural product screening (and sorting) device. The transport means and the screening device were disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2891973 and has been put into commercial practice.
The inventors further developed a device arranged to be capable of efficiently obtaining information on the internal quality of inspection objects, irrespective of their sizes, inspection items and kinds, by projecting light over a wide range of the inspection objects with the quantity of light to be projected on the inspection objects increased. This device were disclosed in Japanese Patent Applications No. HEI 11-173916 and No. HEI 11-271151.
In order to inspect the inspection objects in large quantity at sorting and packaging facilities, the above-stated device must be installed in a large number. However, the arrangement of light-projecting and light-receiving means of the device necessitates a transport path to be arranged to increase the dimension of each row of a plurality of receiving trays in the transverse or lateral direction of the transport path. Then, since the spacing intervals between the rows and columns cannot be decreased, the transport (conveyor) path requires a larger installation space, which necessitates some expansion of an existing building of the facilities.
Conventional screening and sorting devices are generally arranged to select and sort or classify the inspection products by grades by detecting and measuring the appearance grade, size and weight of them without any device for detecting internal quality information. The devices of this kind are popularly arranged, at many sorting and packaging facilities, to use a multi-row type sorting conveyor having object receiving trays laterally arranged in each row, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. SHO 46-26805. The sorting conveyor of this type is generally installed in combination with an automatic supply device which is arranged at a starting part of the conveyor to automatically supply, for example, agricultural products coming from a preceding process. Therefore, the conventional sorting conveyor is suited for processing the products in large quantity. However, the rows of receiving trays on the conveyor are narrowly spaced from each other. Therefore, it has been impossible to arrange, in combination with the conveyor, any light-projecting and receiving means that is arranged to project the rays of light on the agricultural products on each of the receiving trays over a wide range of the peripheral part of each of the agricultural products.
This invention is directed to solve the problems of the prior art described above. It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a multi-row type online internal quality inspection device to be interposed in between an existing automatic supply device arranged to supply inspection objects after a preceding process and an existing conveyor for a subsequent process of screening and sorting the inspection objects by measuring and checking them by their appearance or external quality, such as weight, shape, size or the degree of color, for example, at sorting and packaging facilities. The internal quality inspection device to be provided according to this invention for inspecting the internal quality of the inspection object is aimed to economically arrange it to carry out the interposed internal quality inspection process by utilizing the existing automatic supply device and the existing conveyor for the subsequent process in combination as they are.
More specifically, the multi-row type online internal quality inspection device according to this invention comprises transport means having a transport starting part in which a plurality of transport columns of inspection objects are arranged to coincide in position with the inspection object supply columns of an existing automatic supply device and a transport ending part in which the transport columns are arranged to coincide in position with the inspection object sending columns of the existing conveyor for a subsequent process; and an inspection area comprises light projecting means for projecting light rays on each of inspection objects and light receiving means for receiving and detecting a transmission light coming through the inspection objects. The inspection area is interposed in between the transport starting part and the transport ending part. In the inspecting area, the light ray is projected on each of adjacently arranged inspection objects without having any interference of one object with another, so that the internal quality of each of the inspection objects can be accurately examined and inspected by the multi-row type online internal quality inspection device according to this invention.
The multi-row type online internal quality inspection device according to the present invention comprises:
transport means for conveying a plurality of inspection objects in a plurality of rows, said transport means including an inspection area;
light projecting means arranged at predetermined positions in said inspection area to project light rays on the inspection objects set side by side in each of said rows and conveyed by said transport means;
light receiving means arranged at said inspection area to receive transmission light coming through said inspection objects,
wherein said transport means comprises a conveyor having left and right conveyor chains endlessly arranged to circularly travel in parallel on left and right sides of said transport means along chain rails;
a plurality of mounting bars arranged in parallel with each other and a spaced at a predetermined interval in the direction of travel of said conveyor, two ends of each of said mounting bars being held by said conveyor chains on the left and right sides of said transport means;
a plurality of receiving trays carried by said mounting bars to be shiftable by said mounting bars in parallel with said mounting bars and arranged in a plurality of columns spaced in the direction of width of said conveyor and in a plurality of rows arranged in the direction of travel of said conveyor, and a plurality of guide rails arranged to guide said receiving trays so as to vary a spacing interval between adjacent columns of receiving trays in the direction of width of said conveyor.
A first embodiment of the part invention comprises: transport means for conveying many inspection objects in a plurality of rows and also in a plurality columns; an inspection area arranged, at a predetermined intermediate part of the transport path of the transport means, to include light projecting means for projecting light rays on the inspection objects in each of the rows conveyed by the transport means and light receiving means for receiving transmission light coming through the inspection objects. In the multi-row type online internal quality inspection device, the transport means includes a conveyor having left and right conveyor chains endlessly arranged to circularly travel in parallel along chain rails which are arranged in parallel with each other on the left and right sides of the transport means; many mounting bars which are arranged in parallel with each other and spaced at predetermined intervals in the direction of travel of the conveyor; many receiving trays mounted on the mounting bars, to be movable in parallel with the mounting bars, and arranged in a plurality of rows extending in the direction of width of the conveyor and in a plurality of columns in the direction of travel of the conveyor, the receiving trays being respectively arranged to have guide pins protruding downward; and a plurality of guide rails which are arranged to guide the guide pins of the receiving trays to move the receiving trays of each row in parallel with the mounting bars in such a way as to cause the receiving trays of each row to be closer to each other by narrowing spacing intervals between the adjacent (columns of) receiving trays at a transport starting part of the conveyor, to gradually make the receiving tray spacing intervals wider according as each row of the receiving trays is brought closer to the inspection area from the transport start part by the travel of the conveyor and to cause the receiving tray spacing intervals to become narrower and to be equal to the spacing intervals of a conveyor arranged for a subsequent process.
In another aspect of this invention, a multi-row type online internal quality inspection device is arranged as a second embodiment of this invention as follow: In addition to what is described above as the first embodiment of this invention, each of the receiving trays is provided with a loose fitting part which is formed at a lower front part of the tray in the direction of travel of the conveyor and is loosely fitted on the mounting bar located in front of the loose fitting part. Further, each receiving tray is provided also with an inserting cutout part which is formed in the rear side face of the receiving tray and is arranged to be engaging the mounting bar located in rear of the receiving tray. The provision of the loose fitting part and the inserting cutout part effectively keeps each of the receiving trays in a horizontal attitude while the conveyor is horizontally traveling.
Further, in a further aspect of the invention, a multi-row type internal quality inspection device is arranged as a third embodiment of this invention, as follows: In addition to what is described above as the first or second embodiment of this invention, each of the receiving trays is provided with an elastic receiving seat which is fitted into the receiving tray and has a through hole vertically formed in the center part thereof as a transmission light passage; and also with a light blocking bottom face which is arranged on the bottom side of the tray to horizontally extend both frontward and rearward from the hole. The light receiving means thus can be arranged to be closer to the lower side face of each of the receiving trays.
The first embodiment of this invention mentioned above is arranged as follows: The many mounting bars are arranged in front and in rear of each of the plurality of rows of receiving trays in the traveling direction of the conveyor chains. The receiving trays are mounted on the mounting bars in such a way as to be movable between the front and rear mounting bars in the axial direction of the mounting bars. The guide rails which are located at a lower part of the traveling path of the receiving trays are arranged to allow the guide pins which protrude downward from the lower sides of the receiving trays to travel in a curved manner as the conveyor chains travels. The curved travel of the guide pins is arranged to be made such that the spacing intervals between the columns of the receiving trays become sufficiently wide at the inspection area for installing the light projecting means and the light receiving means there. Therefore, the light projecting means and the light receiving means can be mounted at any desired position, except the path of the mounting bars, and in any desired posture without any space restriction, in such a way as to have the receiving tray located between them.
Further, in the first embodiment, the rows of the receiving trays are arranged to be moved in parallel in such a way as to gradually narrow the spacing intervals between adjacent columns of the receiving trays as they move toward the end of the transport path from the inspection area. Therefore, at the end of the transport, the spacing intervals between the columns of receiving trays can be accurately adjusted to the spacing intervals of the transport means arranged for a next process. By virtue of the arrangement, therefore, the inspection objects can be smoothly and continuously transported by a plurality of transport means.
In the second embodiment, each of the receiving trays which are in a plurality of rows is arranged to have its lower front part in the direction of travel of the conveyor loosely fitted on one of the mounting bar located in front of the receiving tray and also to have its rear side part engage another mounting bar located in rear of the receiving tray. Therefore, the spacing intervals between the front and rear mounting bars can be widely arranged to lower the vertical height of the receiving trays by sinking each of them in a space between the mounting bars. The vertical through hole which is provided as a transmission light passage in the center part of each receiving tray can be arranged to have a wider diameter and a shorter vertical height, so that the quantity of transmission light to be received by the light receiving means can be sufficiently increased.
In the third embodiment, with the through hole vertically formed in the bottom center part of each of the receiving trays and also in its elastic receiving seat to provide a transmission light passage, the light receiving means is arranged to be located close to the lower face of the receiving tray below the receiving tray travel path. This arrangement enables the device to detect even a slight amount of transmission light coming from the inspection object. Besides, the light blocking bottom face which extends forward and rearward from the exit part of the hole effectively prevents disturbance light from entering there. Therefore, the light projecting means can be arranged to project light on the inspection objects from on both the right and left sides of the objects on the receiving trays which are arranged in a plurality of rows and in a plurality of columns. The arrangement of the embodiment thus permits an increase in quantity of light to be projected, so that the internal quality of the inspection object can be easily examined even in case where the inspection object does not readily permit transmission of light therethrough.
The above and other objects and features of this invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of embodiments thereof taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.